U.s. Politicians Pandering

December 14, 1999

Over the weekend, national politicians who jumped into the controversy over 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez missed the opportunity to be voices of reason. Instead, they chose to be voices of pandering to anti-Castro hardliners.

Sen. John McCain, a Republican presidential hopeful, deserves the top pandering award for telling voters in Little Havana that if he were president he would issue an order allowing Elian to stay. McCain's concern that the child not be raised in a communist society may be sincere. Yet he must know that such action would violate the rights of any decent parent.

If an American child were caught in a foreign country in a similar custody battle, U.S. politicians would be clamoring to have the child reunited with a surviving parent back home.

George W. Bush, the Republican presidential frontrunner, argued that Elian's father should be allowed to visit the United States where he could get a "whiff of freedom."

Al Gore, the vice president and Democratic hopeful, agreed the father should state his claim on U.S. soil, although Gore also talked about honoring the father's views. Neither candidate, however, showed much interest in Juan Miguel Gonzalez's right as a parent, or in the emotional well-being of his young son.

These concerns also were absent from the comments of Republican presidential contender Steve Forbes who said that returning Elian to Cuba would be a sign of "Clinton-Gore's appeasement of Castro."

Another opinion came from Sen. Robert Torricelli, a New Jersey Democrat who is not running for president. Torricelli said U.S. law should determine Elian's fate, but he also peppered his comments with remarks about how Castro won't win this battle.

Remarks like these play into Fidel Castro's hands. The Cuban leader has been whipping crowds in Cuba into a frenzy against the United States over its refusal to immediately return the boy to his homeland. The Elian debate give Castro another opportunity to blame Cuba's problems on the United States, and to divert public attention from his own failings.

But not much more is expected from a communist dictator like Castro. The same can't be said about American politicians, especially those trying to become president.

Elian isn't a national security issue or a geo-political bargaining chip. He is a 6-year-old boy who lost his mother and is separated from his father. The fact that he survived for two days at sea by clinging to an inner tire tube is reason to rejoice. The fact that he has become a Cold War football is reason to feel shame.

Elian's mother, Elizabet Broton, risked her life to give her son a better future. The woman died with 10 others when their boat sank when they tried to enter the United States illegally. Her tragic death, however, should not terminate the rights of Elian's father, who by all accounts loves his son and wants him back.

Unless it can be proven that Juan Miguel Gonzalez is an unfit father, Elian should be returned to him.

This father and son should not be in the middle of another fight between Castro and Cuban exiles, and between Cuba and the United States. U.S. politicians, especially those running for president, should be ashamed of themselves for cheering on this battle from the sidelines.